Bohuslav Martinů: Sinfonietta giocosa (1940)

[@Hyblovina]

This is the music of my taste. Beautiful melodies, heavy thoughts, playful and fresh, full of energy and still interesting. Something is still going on and there's still something to discover... and never overlistening. I love Martinů´s works. Thank you for sharing

[@こうもとよしひこ]

A fancy piano concerto. As soon as I heard the first movement, I was fascinated. Jan Panenka's SUPRAPHON CD is also a wonderful performance, but this performance was released on the CONIFER label CD when I was working for a Japanese record company. This is a memorable CD.

[@LambdaBuzz]

Some of Martinů's works are pure genius. Especially the first movement of this piece is breathtaking. Thank you so much for sharing!

[@gerardbegni2806]

This "sinfonia giocosa" fully deserves its name. Its mood is quite in line with what we can expect from its title. In addition, during the 20's and the 30's, Martinu was under the very strong influence of French contemporary music (the 'Groupe des six, Roussel), and of the neoclassical Stravinsky to a less extent. Here, he begins to get some distance from this influence to find a final personality of his own , which led us to give us top level masterworks of the two last decades of his laife.

[@BritinIsrael]

Great music from an underrated composer!

[@andreassiannvart4484]

yes, a very beautiful and delicat music and very pleasent to conduct it. I conducted it with Armenian National Chamber Orchestra and the french pianist, Jacques Schab , on 1995.

[@didierschein7198]

Bravo Nvart !

[@MVA74]

Congrats 👏!

[@robertmuehlmann342]

What a gem, even on the thirtieth listening, every note and phrase perfect. Oh, that I have lived to know this music! I haven't felt this moved since, in the late '50's, I gobbled up Ernesto Halffter's Sinfonietta (Ataulfo Argenta, London CS 6029) -- it's on youtube under my name.

[@MegaCirse]

When my thought falls asleep and goes astray, this music recalls it to order. Like what, even the common mortal can be touched by grace. Thank you

[@andrewpetersen5272]

Perfectly stated Philippe!

[@darrylschultz6479]

@@andrewpetersen5272 Now tell us what it means.

[@andrewpetersen5272]

@@darrylschultz6479 It's the dance of life my friend.

[@darrylschultz6479]

@@andrewpetersen5272 If you say so cob.

[@darrylschultz9395]

By the way, I was wondering-could I meet Grace sometime?

[@annacuj1170]

I also think he's underrated.

[@ravivo2001]

thank you for posting - im would love to see live performance of this..

[@MrInterestingthings]

Sounds and feeling like a small, light humorous piano concerto. Poulenc and Martini share a lot!

[@nathan87]

Upvote for Martini.

[@jksteven1]

Lovely work by a composer whose symphonies I love and thought I knew! This one is new to me and a delightful work! Thank you so much for this upload!

[@rileysdad1923]

Same. Everything you wrote!

[@mustekeindhoven1]

This composition was entirely written in the tram between Aix-en-Provence and Marseille in 1941. See Radio Prague International 6/12/2020

[@janettivy8524]

Also in the same vein: Three Czech Dances for Two Pianos. Delightful and will put you in good mood!

[@bjoisac]

Interesting, because this is played by an Australian enthusiast for Czekian music, Sir Charles Mackerras!

[@leoinsf]

The roots of Bach in Martinu's music is very strong, but in the Sinfonietta Giocosa, there is outright reference to the Bach Keyboard Concertos! Martinu lived in a "Bach world" where counterpoint was considered more important that the actual themes, themselves. Martinu rarely wrote straight melodies and accompaniment without the rambling seductions of counterpoint, but the second movement comes close to this as any Martinu composition. Martinu is definitely an under-rated composer. How about resurrecting some of his works for performance by our modern symphony orchestras!!!

[@marusak72]

The painting named "Absinth drinker" which is located in Caffee Slavia just across the National Theatre is not (by) Toyen. If it is Toyen the price would double the whole caffee and half of the theatre ;))

[@johndinwiddie4411]

Yeah, that picture, very nice picture, and what the hell does it have to do with this work?

[@vonFisch]

The picture was painted by czech painter Viktor Oliva, and it indeed hangs in Cafe Slavia in Prague.

[@algeborusas1883]

What does any painting have to do with any musical piece? Not much. It's just something to look at while you listen. Posters usually try to match something from the same time frame or area of the composition. That's what the hell it has to do with this work.

[@9827george]

pleas keep out the "hell" and just enjoy both the music and the arts in general. Street talk does not fit here.

[@GeorgeHenderson]

@@johndinwiddie4411 It may refer to the fact that the composer's student and lover, composer Viteszlava Kapralova, had died shortly before the writing of this composition (though not obvious here, a response to this loss can be heard in the earlier Fantaisie et Toccata for piano and the second movement of the later Concerto da Camera for violin and orchestra) and it also can be seen as a reminder of Martinu's best-known opera Julliette.

[@marcela77777]

Génius !!!

[@qdrtrg]

Gràcies!

[@robertmuehlmann342]

I discovered the 6 Syms 30 years ago (Neeme Jarvi: the best version) and have loved them and played them an embarrassing number of times. Even perhaps for the 50th hearing I would hear stuff I missed, stuff that I loved. All were composed after this piece, but we hear the same mastery of the intricacies, beautiful sonorities, and wow the syncopation!

[@kuang-licheng402]

great

[@ieatbreakdown]

thanks Thomas Bernhard

[@johannesbluemink4581]

Never heard this one before. I like it. I know his 'Sinfonietta La Jolie' for Chamber Orchestra and piano a little better. That one is pretty good as well!

[@peterczipott6854]

"La Jolla", not "La Jolie" -- it's the name of the seaside enclave of San Diego, California, where Martinu lived for a while.

[@johannesbluemink4581]

@@peterczipott6854 A year late, but by accident I ventured on this. Indeed, was typo error.

[@robertmuehlmann342]

I have listen to this piece a dozen times now since my last posting and my admiration and enjoyment of this unappreciated composer is greatly magnified. And I especially like the dramatic pauses near the end of the last movement --each nearly 9 seconds --the second one the resolution of the first. Did Martinu compose anything (small or large orchestration) without the piano?

[@paulybarr]

Yes he did- eventually! The sixth symphony doesn't include piano.

[@konosxatz1]

Incredible.It reminds of Antheil for some reason.By the way the picture isn't by Toyen but by Viktor Olivia "The Absinthe drinker"

[@andrewpetersen5272]

Yes..a lot like Antheil, whom I also admire much!

[@jksteven1]

Interesting association. I don't personally care for anything by Anthiel, but love the music of Martucci!

[@andrewpetersen5272]

@@jksteven1 What is it about Antheil that puts you off?

[@yowzephyr]

0:01 is a good place to start. ^

[@darrylschultz9395]

Only worth mentioning a place is a good place to start if it's somewhere other than the start.

[@yowzephyr]

@@darrylschultz9395 It's not for others. It's for me. I can get to the start quicker clicking that timestamp.

[@LucasHagemans]

2:30 Tubular bells, Mike Ofield 1973, The Exorcist

[@robertmuehlmann342]

Does anyone know when, and under what circumstances, this piece was composed, i.e., was it begun in 1939?

[@irmavargas4786]

Robert Muehlmann in 1940 in Aix--de-Provence when he escaped from nazis...08.011941 he left France to go to U.S.A

[@yasushi8068]

Viktor Oliva?

[@olm7080]

Ah the green fairy, the green phantasm called absinthe.

[@noelpucarua2843]

You can see the painting in the Cafe Slavia on Narodni trida across from the National theatre in Prague. The Cafe has a beautiful view of the river Vltava and Prague castle.

[@meisterwue]

May I ask about this exciting painting, this cover image ......really by Toyen , i e Marie Čermínová ? And exciting Martinů, one of my favorites among composers of 20th Century